*Butterflies tend to hover on sheltered, sunny areas, so that’s the number one requirement you need to fill.*Make sure your garden gets at least 6 hours of direct sun daily.*Adding rocks to your garden gives them a place to bask and warm up, and helps them start flying earlier.
*Cultivate tall plants such as hollyhocks and lilacs to shield the fragile creatures’ from the wind and hide them from predatory birds.*Choose plants of differing heights and plants that bloom at different times of the year.*Keep an area of your garden wet. Butterflies need moisture and use a method called ‘puddling’ to extract nutrients from the soil.*If you want even more butterflies in your garden, provide food for caterpillars during the larval stage (like parsley, fennel & butterfly weed).
*Above all, avoid using insecticides or pesticides in your butterfly garden!

ATTRACTING HUMMINGBIRDS TO YOUR GARDEN

Tiny, iridescent hummingbirds can be an exciting addition to your backyard wildlife habitat. Attract them by planting red, tubular flowers. As a supplementary source of food, hummingbird feeders can be used. Sugar water (1 cup water, ¼ cup sugar), boiled and cooled, is extremely attractive to hummingbirds. No red food coloring is needed. Below is a listing of plants that the Ruby Throated Hummingbird finds irresistible.

What is a Native Plant?
Native plants (also called indigenous plants) are plants that have evolved over thousands of years in a particular region. They have adapted to the geography, hydrology, and climate of that region. Native plants occur in communities, that is, they have evolved together with other plants. As a result, a community of native plants provides habitat for a variety of native wildlife species such as songbirds and butterflies.

Why Should I Use Native Plants?
Native plants provide a beautiful, hardy, drought resistant, low maintenance landscape while benefiting the environment. Native plants, once established, save time and money by eliminating or significantly reducing the need for fertilizers, pesticides, and water and lawn maintenance equipment.

Native plants provide shelter and food for wildlife. Native plants attract a variety of birds, butterflies, and other wildlife by providing diverse habitats and food sources. Closely mowed lawns are of little use to most wildlife.

Plants are great at fighting off disease and infection when they are in their natural habitat. They have adapted over time to survive almost anything they encounter in that area. Also, native plants are adept at surviving any natural disasters you may encounter. They have been surviving in your area for centuries and have seen the worst of it, yet still survived.

Native plants tend to grow looking naturally beautiful with little or no design work or maintenance on your part. This is because those plants belong there, and therefore just seem to fit in to our eyes. The plants rarely look out of place, if they truly are in their natural environment.

Which Plants Attract Birds and Butterflies?

There are several species of native wildflowers and grasses that will attract particular birds and butterflies.

White tailed deer are beautiful animals, but very destructive to gardens. The best thing for deer control is the most often recommended repellent Liquid Fence it works the best and lasts the longest. The other option is fencing to exclude them, Ther is a good deer fence product called Deer Netting which is less than 30 dollars for a 7′ by 100′ piece. Certain plants are naturally repulsive to deer. In general, deer avoid eating coarse, fuzzy or spiny plants, or those with strong aromas, especially lemony and minty ones. Although, as you may already know, if they are hungry enough, deer will eat just about anything. Below is a list of rarely eaten good plants to try when gardening with a deer problem.

Some other suggestions: Block their way with fencing. Deer can’t eat what they can’t reach.Interplant aromatic herbs and plants to confuse their sense of smell.Spray Liquid Fence to repel them. Repeat often and after rain.Use nets, radios, sprinklers, & lights. But deer will eventually get used to all of them.